My religion in everyday life

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Strong, Josiah, 1847-1916
My religion in everyday lit<

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THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN. By
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MY RELIGION IN
EVERYDAY LIFE

MY RELIGION IN
EVERYDAY LIFE

^X OF fl^Jic^

JOSIAH STRONG

Author of *'Our Country,^" **The New Era/^ "The

Challenge of the City,'^ "Expansion/^ **The

Next Great Awakening,'* "The Times

and Young Men,*' etc., etc.

NOV 21 1910

NEW YORK

THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY

1910

Copyright, 1910

THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY

Published, Augi'st, 1010

FOREWORD

The results of modern Biblical criti-
cism, the passing of theology into solu-
tion, and the shifting of the currents of
thought have made it difficult for many
men to keep their religion.

What a man really needs is a religion
that will keep hivi, — keep him patient
and strong and hopeful under the wear
and tear of life; keep him sufficiently
alive and growing to readjust himself
to changing conditions; keep his face
to the future and maintain and deepen
his interest in the public welfare and
the progress of the world ; keep his heart
warm toward God and his brother men.

The man of strong religious convic-
tions is confident that the future life

Foreword '

will stamp his particular faith as the
genuine thing, and that the deluded be-
lievers in other isms will then be forced
to recognize the superiority of his.

But I submit that a religion is to be
tested by this life rather than the next.
If our conceptions of heaven are at all
correct, it is a deal harder to keep clean
and unselfish and faithful down here
than it is up there. We are supposed
to have got through with temptations,
struggles, disappointments and bereave-
ments when we reach heaven. It is when
the tempest is driving us toward the
rocks that the anchor and chain are
tested, not after we have reached the
peaceful harbor.

The real question is what is a man's
religion worth to him here and now?
What does it enable him to become, and
what does it inspire him to do? And it
is very unlikely that the religion which
6

Foreword

makes most of a man here will make less
than the most of him hereafter.

This is a practical age and we are a
practical people, hence it is not the
theory hut the practice of religion which
appeals to us. Not creed, not logic, but
experience is the test. That religion is
best which in a great variety of circum-
stances works best.

The past fifty years have been prob-
ably the most interesting half century
in the history of the world ; and doubt-
less the two great revolutions which
have taken place — the one in the world
of thought, the other in the physical
world — requiring a double readjust-
ment of life, have put as great a strain
on religious faith as it is likely to suffer
at any time.

]My religious experience has covered
precisely that period, and has enabled
me to make a readjustment of faith and
7

Foreword

life which was of vital importance. This
change was made not only without loss
of faith, but with unspeakable gain of
conviction, of joy and, I trust, of use-
fulness.

The vast majority of the members of
our churches have not yet made this re-
adjustment. Many are in the midst of
the process, and not a few are losing
their way.

It has been thought that my experi-
ence might be helpful to others. Hence
on the following invitation of an editor
I have told what my religion means to
me.

The less restricted limits of this little
book permit me to expand somewhat
the original paper.

I hoj)e , that it may help many to en-
large their religion to the full measure
of life.

Foreword

The Circle IMagazine.
Dear Dr. Strong:

I am asking a number of people who
are prominent in the world of laymen a
question which I wish also to put to
you, as a sincere Christian rather than
a minister of the Gospel.

What does your Faith really mean
to you?

To one man his religion is a creed;
to another a hope; to a third an anchor.
To one man it is an actual factor in his
daily life and business, a spur to am-
hition, a source of power through
prayer, a check against wrong doing;
to another it is a vague indefinite spirit-
ual ecvaltation; to another still, a matter
of Sunday services and Wednesday
prayer meetings. To some men it is
all of these things, and to others per-
haps something entirely different.

I am trying to find out just what
9

Foreword

their faith means to some men who have
achieved things and held close to their
God. I want to find out wlmt it means
in a practical way — just how it gives
them strength in their work_, if it does,
or in what other way it is a thing of
value to them, I do not care what it
means to them as a creed or a doctrine.
I want to know what it is as a work-
ing PRINCIPLE.

The others whom I am approaching
with this request are not clergymen,
hut I should like also to hear from you,
although, as I said, not as a minister.

Will you let me have your answer
in the form of an article of three or
four thousand words?

Very truly yours,

P. TV. Hansl,
Managing Editor.
The reply to this letter forms the
substance of the following pages.

10

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. How iMr Religious Expe-
rience Began .... 1
II. The Individualistic Point

OF View 9

III. The Social Point of View 21

HOW MY RELIGIOUS EXPERI-
ENCE BEGAN

My Religion in Everyday Life

HOW MY RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE BEGAN

You want me to tell what my re-
ligion means to me. I answer, every-
thing. I say it advisedly and mean it
literally, everything. What cannot be
some part of my religion must not be
any part of my life.

Religion has two elements, — knowl-
edge or belief, and experience or life.
One who does not undertake to trans-
late his convictions into action, may
have a creed but has no religion. If
a man is not going to live his belief, it
matters little what it is, whether his
creed has one article or thirty-nine or
five thousand, as one Scotch creed is

15

My Religion in Everyday Life

said to have had. But the moment he
begins to put his beHef into practice, it
becomes a matter of vital importance
whether it is true and adequate. If a
ship is going to ride at anchor until
she rots, it does not make a straw's dif-
ference whether her chart and compass
are false or true ; but if she puts to sea,
they must be true or she will be more
hkely to find the rocks than the desired
port.

I shall tell you how my religious ex-
perience began, how for many years the
common interpretation of Christianity
produced in my case the common re-
ligious experiences, and then how a dif-
ferent interpretation of the teachings
of Jesus vastly enlarged and enriched
my life, making my religion mean
everything to me.

I was blest with Christian parents
who were solicitous for the religious
16

My Religion in Everyday Life

life of their children. We were in-
structed in those religious teachings
which prevailed in New England
throughout the greater part of the
nineteenth century and are still com-
mon in the United States. They were
well calculated to develop the con-
science, and appealed to it with the
most powerful sanctions of time and
eternity.

While still very young I had a deep
sense of right and -vvTong, but often
stubbornly resisted my convictions of
duty. I loved dearly to have my own
way, in which I was much like most
people, and when crossed I flew into
an uncontrolled passion.

The continued pressure of Christian
influence and my continued resistance
of it increased my antipathy to every-
thing religious until I was often very
wretched. I distinctly remember en-
17.

My Religion in Everyday Life

vying the chickens, the cat, a worm —
anything that was not accountable. I
was afraid of my immortahty.

Of course I drove away such
thoughts, but they were forced upon
me in many ways at short intervals un-
til I reached the age of thirteen.

How vividly I remember the Sunday
afternoon when the great struggle
came! I can see myself alone in the
parlor, standing near the corner of the
organ, with my back to the window. I
had been trying for some time to live
a Christian life without letting a soul
know it — at home, in school or any-
where else. The conviction was now
forced upon me that I must openly
acknowledge my purpose ; but that was
precisely the hardest thing in the world
to do. If known in the home, my many
shortcomings and especially my fits of
temper would appear all the more
18

My Religion in Everyday Life

glaring in the light of my newly ex-
pressed purpose. If known at school,
I should doubtless attract abundant
ridicule, for I should be singidar.
There was not a boy in the village who
professed to be a Christian.

I was not aware, at the time, of the
full significance of the struggle. I did
not know that it was the great turn-
ing point of my life. Of course life
is full of turning points, but that is
supreme in which the will is uncondi-
tionally surrendered to duty regardless
of cost or consequence; when it is set-
tled that henceforth conviction must
mean action, that belief must be trans-
lated into life. This is the beginning
of a real religious experience.

Happily this supreme question gen-
erally presents itself not in abstract
but in concrete form. If the duty is
the most difficult imaginable, surrender
19

My Religion in Everyday Life

to it is decisive because the greater in-
cludes the less.

The specific question which came to
me was: "Are you willing to go to
the Young People's meeting next
Tuesday evening, stand on your feet,
and say that you desire and intend to
live a Christian life?"

If others were taking the step, or if
the pastor would only give an invita-
tion, it would be so much easier. But
there was no special religious interest
in the church or in the community; the
help of an invitation would not be
given; every one would be startled;
and In that little village world it would
be proclaimed on the housetop next
day.

Such a prospect to a diffident boy
of thirteen was simply appalling, but
my mind was made up and I said, " I'll
do it." Instantly the distress I had

20

My Religion in Everyday Life

long felt vanished, and a strange un-
speakable peace possessed me.

I did not know then that I had
obeyed the command, " If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me."
Self-will had been crucified.

21

THE INDIVIDUALISTIC
POINT OF VIEW

II

THE INDIVIDUALISTIC POINT OF VIEW

Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress has been
regarded by the Protestant churches
as second only to the Bible. It is the
best possible embodiment of the in-
dividualistic interpretation of Chris-
tianity. Pilgrim's whole journey from
start to finish was a struggle for per-
sonal safety. The author, with the
artistic skill of genius, depicts the spir-
itual experiences of that type of Chris-
tian. Bunyan's immortal dream might
be called a pictorial personification of
the individualistic teaching of the
Westminster catechism. I was brought
up on both. I am glad I had that
teaching, and I am gladder that I out-
grew it.

25

My Religion in Everyday Life

But to outgrow it required twenty-
five years or more. Meanwhile I
passed through those religious experi-
ences which naturally, and perhaps in-
evitably, attend the individualistic con-
ception of religion and of life.

Fundamental to this conception is
the old and mischievous distinction be-
tween the " sacred " and the " secular."
Thus the ministry is a "sacred" call-
ing ; all other occupations are " secu-
lar." Preaching is serving God; get-
ting a living is worldly. A portion of
our time and money belongs to God;
the remainder is our own and may
properly be devoted to " secular " uses.
There is believed to be an antagonism
between soul and body, and many have
afflicted the flesh for the benefit of the
sj^irit. It is supposed that the interests
of time are in conflict with those of
eternity and that religion requires us
to sacrifice the former to the latter.
26

My Religion in Evcr?/daij Life

Tills distinction thus runs a line of
cleavage throughout life, cutting it into
two distinct and conflicting spheres,
creating a radically false philosophy of
life, and making a lot of trouble for
every one who attempts to live in both
of those spheres at the same time.
Such an attempt is like the traditional
endeavor to ride two horses that are
going in opposite directions. The re-
sult is repeated falls as long as the ef-
fort is persisted in.

In medieval times many, being thor-
oughly in earnest to " gain heaven at
last," tried to solve the problem by re-
tiring from "the world" and making
the whole life sacred, that is, religious.
Nowadays most men are frankly
worldly. They mount the one horse
and very likely ride it to death.

But the people who are really try-
ing to be religious generally have, as
I said, a lot of trouble. The soul is in-
27

My Religion in Everyday Life

habiting a body; and if the two are in
conflict, the man has a perpetual quar-
rel with himself. Moreover, the body
must live in a material world, and be
ministered to with material things.
The man must earn a livelihood, unless
soul and body are to be permanently di-
vorced. But plowing corn and build-
ing houses and keeping books and
practicing law — all these are " secular '*
and worldly, not religious. And not be-
ing connected with God, they alienate
thought and affection from him. Thus
the religion of the would-be earnest
Christian is always " waxing cold." He
wants to give a part of his time and a
part of his money to God, but somehow
the world is always getting the lion's
share. If he really has some spiritual
life, he mourns his frequent falls.

The old-time prayer meetings, now
nearly extinct, and the hymns which

28

My Religion in Everyday Life

were sung in them were full of such
confessions. " These cold hearts of
ours " were there week after week, year
in and year out. They could never get
warm enough to stay warm. " We
have done those things which we ought
not to have done, and have left undone
those things which we ought to have
done " has become the classical confes-
sion of the prevailing type of Christian.

What "worldly" enterprise or or-
ganization of any sort ever won suc-
cess whose members could habitually
and as a matter of course bring such
an indictment against themselves?

Such an atmosphere is absolutely
fatal to enthusiasm. There have been
many enthusiastic armies, many en-
thusiastic scientific expeditions, many
enthusiastic business organizations.
The men who are cutting the Panama
canal are all these in one, and have an
29

My Religion in Everyday Life

enthusiasm which lasts three hundred
and sixty-five days in the year. They
can hardly talk of anything else. A
member of the Commission recently
said to me, "My wife was giving a
dinner party the other evening, and
threatened to shy a plate at every man
who said 'steam-shovel' I replied,
* INIy dear, you'll have to break all your
china.' "

Why is it so difficult to arouse a
church to enthusiasm? Now and then
there is an individual whose religious
zeal burns with a steady fire; and fre-
quently a church is aroused to a feverish
activity for a time, but the fever is cer-
tain to be followed by a chill. Who
ever heard of a church whose member-
ship as a whole was enthusiastic seven
days in the week, year after year?

Many an army, many a scientific
expedition, many a business corporation

30

il/// llcUgion in Everyday Life

has been able to say with Paul's splen-
did wholeness, " This one thing I
do " ; hence sustained enthusiasm and
assured success. But that is precisely
what the church cannot say. ISIost of
its members, because improperly in-
structed, are trying to live two differ-
ent lives, one " sacred," the other " sec-
ular"; they are trying to live in two
different and conflicting worlds; they
are trying to serve two masters, which
by the best possible authority has been
pronounced impracticable.

According to this dualistic interpre-
tation of Christianity, by far the greater
part of the perfect life was " secular."
Jesus was a carpenter much longer than
he was a preacher. But whatever his
occupation, he was " about his Father's
business," which made all his life sacred.
Religion can never include our whole
lives until our daily work is a part
81

My Religion in Everyday Life

of our religion, because the everyday
work of every man is and ought to be
the greater part of his life.

For upwards of twenty-five years I
was in bondage to this dualistic theory
of life, during which time my religion
meant to me certain things, but not
everything. It meant the salvation of
souls, and that certainly was much ; but
there were a thousand things in life
which so far as I could see sustained
no relation to soul saving. These
things, therefore, were " secular " and
not included in my religious life. Of
some of these, for instance, manly
sports, music and art, I was exceed-
ingly fond. I regarded them as per-
missible to a certain extent, but instead
of making them tributary to my sj^ir-
itual growth and using them to the
glory of God, I trained myself to look
32

My Religion in Evenjdajj Life

on them with a suspicious eye, lest they
become snares of the devil.

But no young man could be insen-
sible to the profound changes which
were taking place both in material civi-
lization and in the world of ideas. The
industrial organization with its divi-
sion of labor was creating a new social
interdependence, and there was begin-
ning to develop a new social spirit, so
that the old individualistic interpreta-
tion of Christianity was more out of
joint with the facts of life than ever.
Then, too, the scientific method w^as de-
molishing many popular beliefs in all
spheres of human thought. Theology
w^as going into solution, and nian}^
good people were saying, "If the
foundations be removed, what shall
the righteous do? "

83

THE SOCIAL POINT OF VIEW

Ill

THE SOCIAL POINT OF VIEW

Then came the social interpretation
of Christianity and the rediscovery of
the Kingdom of God, which to me
proved to be the great organizing prin-
ciple, bringing order out of chaos,
solving not onl}^ the great social prob-
lems of the new civilization, but also
the problems of the individual as well,
and destroying the accepted distinction
between the " sacred " and the " secu-
lar," thus eliminating the old dualism
and making religion inclusive of the
entire life.

But to understand what the social
interpretation of Christianitj'- has done
for my religion and my life, we must
37

My Religion in Everyday Life

look more closely at this organizing
principle, namely, the Kingdom of
God.

It is evident to every thoughtful
reader of the three synoptic gospels
that the Kingdom of God and its com-
ing in the world was the great burden
of Jesus' teaching. To misunder-
stand, therefore, what he meant by that
expression is to misunderstand his mes-
sage, and to misunderstand Christian-
ity. It is, then, of the utmost impor-
tance to ascertain what he meant b}?- it.
He did not define it, because it had
been familiar to Jewish ears for many
centuries.

The application of the scientific
method to God's revelation in nature
has wonderfully enriched the w^orld's
knowledge and given to us the modern
sciences. It is not strange, therefore,
that the api)lication of the same method

31 y Religion in Everyday Life

to God's revelation in the scriptures of
the Old and New Testaments should
cause "new light to break forth from
His word."

In this light we see that by this ex-
pression, " the Kingdom of God," tlie
old Hebrew prophets did not mean
heaven, the home of the blessed dead,
of which they knew little, nor did they
mean by it, the Christian church, visi-
ble or invisible, of which they knew
nothing at all. It meant an ideal world,
a world brought into harmony with
the will of God, and therefore enriched
with every blessing, spiritual and tem-
poral.

Jesus in his first sermon said he had
not come to destroy the teachings of the
prophets, but to fulfill them. He not
only taught us to pray, " Thy kingdom
come, thy will be done in earth as it
is in heaven," but in his teachings, life
39

3Iy Religion in Everyday Life

and death he revealed the means by
which I believe tliis ideal world can be
realized.

He unmistakably taught immortal-
ity and a heaven in another world, but
he had comparatively little to say of
either. He told us not all we would
like to know concerning the other life,
but all we need to know, and devoted
the greater part of his teachings to the
duties of this life. He apparently be-
lieved that the best way to fit men for
heaven in another world was to get
them acclimated to heaven in this world.
In fact, no man can go to heaven who
does not take heaven with him.

As is implied by the Lord's Prayer,
the Kingdom of God comes in the earth
just so far and just so fast as God's
will is done by men as it is done by
angels. Perfect harmony with God's
will is perfect heaven. Self-will is dis-

40

My Religion in Everyday Life

cord, and the essence of every kind of
sin. No man is saved until he is saved
from self-will, self-seeking or selfish-
ness, which is the same thing; and soci-
ety can never he saved until it is saved
from selfishness. It is selfishness which
creates discord and conflict between na-
tions, races, classes, capital and labor,
many husbands and wives. It is the
great anti-social principle, the great
disintegrating force.

There can be no true oneness between
God and man or between man and his
fellow until selfishness has been con-
quered; hence Jesus' unyielding insist-
ence on its crucifixion. In our luxuri-
ous and self-indulgent civilization we
have well-nigh lost the meaning of the
cross. We talk about our " crosses,"
meaning anything that crosses our in-
clination. But the New Testament
lias nothing to say of crosses; the word

41

My Religion in Everyday Life

does not occur in the plural. It has-
much to say of the cross, by which it
means death always.

Men have glorified the cross in ar-
chitecture, art and song; they have
made its sign on the forehead; they
have emblazoned it on banner and
shield; they have fought for it and
slain their enemies in its name; they
have lifted it high on dome and spire;
they have stamped it on prayer-book
and bible; they have beaten gold into
its form and have worn it as an orna-
ment; they have made it a dogma and
wrangled over it; they have made it a
fetish and worshiped it ; they have done
pretty much everything with it except
the one thing which Jesus required,
namely, be crucified on it.

According to the teaching of Jesus,
no one becomes a follower of his until
he accepts crucifixion, surrenders his

42

My Religion in Everyday Life

will. Self-abnegation is not the climax
of the Christian life, as is often sup-
posed, but its beginning. And the man
or woman who knows nothing of self-
abnegation knows nothing of Christian
experience, knows nothing of the cross.

When the great renunciation of self
has been made, God's will becomes the
law of life, and wholeness of life be-
comes possible; but the old duality, ex-
pressed by the "sacred" and the "sec-
ular," is not destroyed and this whole-
ness realized until God's will is seen to
comprehend nature and history. The
Kingdom of God, as taught by Jesus,
is large enough and noble enough to
comprehend both.

Just here I must take a moment to
show that it is not unreasonable to rec-
ognize God in nature and history, work-
ing out His purposes of love. If like
many intelligent men I were unable to
43

My Ueligion in Everyday Life

believe that there is a divine unity of
purpose running through both, I could
not have a rational belief that God's
Kingdom of loving obedience is yet to
fill the whole earth.

The ancients knew nothing of nat-
ural laws. In the processes of nature
and the vicissitudes of life they saw the
workings of a divine will or wills. But
with the coming of science came the
conception of natural law. In one field
after another the question was raised,
Is it will or is it law? And where law
could be traced will was no longer
recognized. God's will was seen only in
that which was unusual and unaccount-
able ; and as the reign of law was grad-
ually discovered to embrace all things,
God was gradually and rather uncere-
moniously bowed out of His universe.

As Emerson says: "Persons are
love's world." The law of gravitation
44i

My Religion in Evcrijdaij Life

Ion Of since compelled my respect, ])iit it
can never inspire my love; nor can I
ever pray to it. Prayer is possible only
in the presence of a will. The enthron-
ing of law, therefore, tended to paralyze
all piety.

The ancient conception of a will with-
out law was unscientific. The modern
conception of law without will is unre-
ligious. The true and coming concep-
tion of will through law is both religious
and scientific.

In applied science men use natural
law^s to accomplish what those laws left
to themselves never could have accom-
plished. An aviator soars into the air
not because he is able to suspend or ig-
nore or violate natural laws, but because
he has learned to make a skillful use
of them. It is not will without law,
neither is it law without will, but will
accomplishing itself through law. And
43

My Religion in Everyday Life

if man can accomplish his will through
law, why cannot God? If man can
make the laws and forces of nature his
obedient servants, why must God be
their slave? If the course of nature is
not fixed to man's limited intelligence,
how can I believe that it is fixed to
God's infinite intelligence? The scien-
tist can do a thousand things impossible
to the savage. Just in proportion as
man gains a knowledge of nature's laws
does his will become free to express it-
self through them in ways once impossi-
ble and even incredible to him. Shall I,
then, believe that He who has perfect
knowledge of all natural laws (His own
laws) is fettered by them? Or is it
more reasonable to believe that Infinite
Intelligence makes them the medium
through which He works His perfect
will?

This makes room for the fatherhood

46

My Religion in Every day Life

of God, for prayer and for providence,
and brings God really close to us.

The conception of the universe as an
infinite machine in which humanitj^ has
been caught and is being ground up by
inexorable law is as false as it is fright-
ful.

The fundamental postulate of the
Christian religion, and of my faith, is
that God is love. This compels me to
believe that He is doing all tliat divine
love, associated with divine wisdom and
divine pow^r, can possibly do to save
the world from sin and its consequent
miseries. It is impossible that infinite
love should not choose the best possible
end. It is impossible that infinite wis-
dom should not select the best possible
means to that end. It is impossible
that infinite power should fail to accom-
plish such an end by such means.

Surely there is no higher good con-
47

My Religion in Everyday Life

ceivable for this world than that all men
should do God's will as it is done by
angels, that is, gladly, intelligently, and
perfectly, which is the full coming of
God's Kingdom in the world. It is,
then, perfectly reasonable to believe
that this is the end to which divine love
has pledged divine wisdom and divine
power ; and that to this end God is using
nature's laws and forces which are per-
fectly within His control, and is also
using men as fast as they become co-
laborers with Him by coming into har-
mony with His great purpose.

This conception of God's relations to
man and nature brings Him very near
to us, "nearer than hands and feet."
Indeed, He is not far enough from us
even to be near, for He is within us, en-
lightening, inspiring, guiding. Whom
does He guide if not those who seek to
know His will that they may do it?

48

My Religion in Everyday Life

Thus my religion has given me the
assurance that I was right where God
wanted me to be, and doing just the
work He wanted me to do; and, of
course this has been both satisfaction
and strength to me.

This conception of God in events
enables me to believe with Paul that
" all things work together for good to
them that love God," which takes the
bitterness out of disappointment and
bereavement, and enables one to hope
and be strong.

As soon as it da"s\Tied on me that
God's great end in nature, in provi-
dence and in revelation was not to get
the largest possible number of indi-
vidual souls out of an unfriendly world
into a friendly heaven, but to make an
ideal world, life had new meaning
and joy for me, and my religion ex-
panded so as to include the whole of it.
49

My Religion in Everyday Life

I saw that in order to an ideal world,
society must be saved as well as the in-
dividual, and that the body must be
perfected as well as the soul, and that
environment must be changed as well
as character. Indeed, I have learned
that environment is commonly (not al-
ways) decisive in shaping character,
that the body profoundly influences
the soul and that the individual is in
very large measure what society has
made him.

It is evident, therefore, that the
Kingdom of God cannot fully come in
the earth until society has been Chris-
tianized, unfavorable environments
transformed, and our physical lives
raised to a much higher plane. All work
for these ends, therefore, is work for
the Kingdom and, if wisely directed,
hastens its coming among men.

Of course multitudes of men contrib-

50

My Religion in Everyday Life

ute to human progress without intend-
ing to do so, and deserve no credit for
it, because their aim is not to help
humanity, but themselves. It is a sore
pity that they should miss the joy and
inspiration and endless satisfaction of
service; for its reward is not its wage,
but its motive.

When I understood that the King-
dom of God meant an ideal world, in-
cluding of course the physical as well
as the spiritual, and that the two do not
constitute a kingdom divided against
itself, but that the physical serves the
spiritual, while the spiritual glorifies
the physical, then for me the so-called
"secular" was eliminated; and now

" There are no gentile oaks, no pagan pines ;
The grass beneath our feet is Christian
grass."

Everything that I can do to serve the
Kingdom of God and hasten its com-

51

My Religion in Everyday Life

ing is sacred, and whatever cannot be
made to serve that Kingdom must not
be done at all.

The apostle's injunction, " Whether,
therefore, ye eat or drink or whatso-
ever ye do, do all to the glory of God,'*
is no longer an impracticable counsel
of perfection, but a practical working
principle of everyday life.

The application of this principle is
made clear by the three social laws —
the laws of the Kingdom — which Jesus
laid down, namely : the law of Love, the
law of Service, and the law of Sacrifice.
The three may be expressed as one as
follows: service inspired by love and
measured by sacrifice. INIy eating and
drinking must be with reference to get-
ting the largest and best possible serv-
ice out of mind and body. The same
object must be kex)t in view in the use
of time and money and opportunities.
52

My Religion in Everyday Life

Everything must be made a means to
the service of the Kingdom as an end.
This does not mean that giving a cer-
tain proportion of time and money
to service earns the right to use
the remainder in self-gratijfication.
This pleading, seductive self has
been crucified, if we are followers of
Christ, and all that we are and have, has
been consecrated to the service of the
Kingdom. This takes the very life of
self, which is the reason Jesus called
it, " taking up the cross," and Paul
spoke of it as being " crucified with
Christ."

Of course I do not mean that one
must trace the relation of every spe-
cific act to the Kingdom. All our ac-
tivities fall into certain great categories
like work, recreation, the care of our
bodies, our social and our political du-
ties. We ought to see clearly that each

53

My Religion in Everyday Life

class of activities furthers the King-
dom, though not every specific act is
traced to its ultimate bearing.

However, the more distinctly we see
the relation of all our activities to the
Kingdom of God, the more constant
and vivid v^ill be the consciousness of
God in our lives, and the more will that
consciousness glorify the humblest act
of hfe.

As long as our ordinary activities
constitute a drift-away from God, He
must seem far off, an "Absentee God,"
as Carlyle says ; and it must be a never-
ending struggle to keep near Him and
have Him seem real. But when in one's
daily work one can see the outworking
of God's plan, and in the processes of
nature, the ongoing of history and the
progress of civilization, one can trace
the coming of the Kingdom, everything
reminds of Him, He becomes the great

54

My Religion in Everyday Life

reality, the center of all things, the ob-
ject of all activities.

The idea that we are, as Paul says,
" co-laborers with God unto the Tving-
dom," that He is using us, our powers,
our time, our substance and all our ac-
tivities to help Him create an ideal
world, makes religion practical, not
theoretical, life not dogma, a matter of
every day, not something to be laid
away with the Sunday clothes.

There is a fine old Irish proverb,
" God loves to be helped." As co-lab-
orers with Him, we are His helpers in
hastening the coming of the Kingdom.
I know of a family in which there had
recently been large property losses and
much sickness. A small boy in the
family prayed, " O Lord, make us
rich and make us well, and then you
can go." The religion of a great many
people is simply the means by which

55

My Religion in Everyday Life

thej^ hope to induce God to help them;
but when we become co-laborers with
God unto the Kingdom, our great long-
ing is to help Him, and helping Him
is our exceeding joy.

JNIorever, we not only enter into high
fellowship with the Highest, but we
also become yoke-fellows and brothers
of all that goodly company in all the
ages and in every land who have helped
to roll the world up hill.

Because in some true sense I am
God's helj^er, I am anxious to learn
His methods so as to help as much as
possible; and because I recognize God
in nature, I recognize natural laws as
His laws, and science as a revelation
of Him. I, therefore, rejoice in every
scientific discovery which I know
enough to understand, and seek to make
my methods scientific because God's
methods are scientific.
56

My Religion in Everyday Life

I am glad whenever anyone makes
two blades of grass grow where only
one grew before, because in some
measure, however small, it hastens the
coming of the Kingdom. I begin to
understand what the apostle meant
when he said, "All things are yours."
Everything that concerns humanity
concerns me because it concerns the
Kingdom of God. I can adapt and
then adopt the famous apothegm of
Terence, " I am a citizen of the King-
dom, and nothing of man is for-
eign to me." I am interested in the
people who live on the other side of
the globe, because their good or ill
hastens or hinders the coming of the
Kingdom; and for the same reason I
am interested in the people who are to
live five hundred or a thousand years
hence, and would gladly do something
or anything to serve them.
57

\

My Religion in Everyday Life

My religion means to me loving and
serving my fellowmen; not instead of
loving God, but because I love God.
The Master taught that to serve our
fellows was to serve Him, and that to
neglect them was to neglect Him. If
my professed love to God does not ex-
press itself in loving service to men, I
have no valid evidence that it is genuine.
" If we love not our brother whom we
have seen, how can we love God whom
we have not seen?" I do not beKeve
that in the soul there are two water-
tight compartments, one for love to
God, the other for love to man, one of
which may be full, while the other is
empty. Christian love, which is disin-
terested love, cannot be apportioned be-
tween the divine and the human; what-
ever is rendered to either is rendered to
both. Cardinal Manning said to
Henry George : " I love men because

58

My Religion in Everyday Life

Jesus loved them." To which ^Ir.
George rephed: "And I love Jesus
because He loved men." The Cardi-
nal's love for the JNIaster inspired love
for his fellows; the philanthropist's
love for men inspired love for the Mas-
ter.

Disinterested love is a divine flame
which rises heavenward whether first
kindled by God or man.

Thus my rehgion makes the whole
world and everybody and everything in
it immensely interesting to me. It
glorifies my work (j'es, glorifies is the
right word ) . All that I do is part of a
scheme of infinite importance, and no
part of such a scheme can be trivial or
commonplace.

A part of my work is utterly dis-
tasteful to me, but I can do it for the
sake of the Kingdom and the King;
and the greater the sacrifice, the greater
59

My Religion in Everyday Life

the joy in making it. Hence my daily
work is joy and gladness to me because
service is joy; and many, many times
I go to it with the sense of elation, the
same lightness of heart and of foot
that I felt as a boy when going a fish-
ing, or nutting, or skating, and wanted
to hunt up fences to jump over.

It goes without saying that I have
my infirmities and weaknesses. But
I can say much worse than that
against myself, for infirmities and
weaknesses are not sins. ]\Iy sins are
needless and I am to blame for them,
and much more to blame, I think, than
most people, because I believe I have
more help to resist sin than most
people. But I am at peace with no sin,
and at war with no duty, so that my
religion gives me the assurance of for-
giveness and the sense of peace.

And during these fifty years since
60

./

My Religion in Everyday Life

I made the great renunciation, I can
see that by God's sufficient grace I
have been able to overcome with fewer
falls and less struggle.

Thus my religion is a philosophy of
life that works. It satisfies my mind,
it warms my heart, it kindles my hope,
it feeds my enthusiasm. It makes my
life a joy and the life beyond life a
greater joy, so that I have much to live
for and more to die for. But heaven
will keep, and I am willing to wait as
long as I can help bring heaven to
earth.

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